Hello again!

Yes, I know, I have been away for a long, long time.  Life has a way of interfering sometimes....

I have been weaving:  the singles linen warp I last mentioned turned out to be nightmarish.  In all, I wound up threading it three times, sleying it four times and it was with great satisfaction that I cut it off when I had woven it off.  Uncharacteristically, I have not finished the cloth because I was behind on getting started with something I had promised.

About 20 years ago I wove some cotton looper rugs for a couple.  Repeated laundering and constant use had finally worn them out.  I needed to weave new ones for them and that meant dyeing the loops and ordering in enough warp in the correct color.  I got the dyeing done and the warp on and started and then had to prepare for some workshops.

I taught two round-robin workshops, complete with binders filled with drafts in plastic sleeves for two different workshops.  The first, in Albuquerque, was a workshop I was presenting for the first time. Tom Knisely had contracted to teach about profile drafting and blocks and then cancelled.  The workshop chair for Las Aranas Weavers and Spinners got in touch with me to see if that was something i could teach.  No problem!  I know that stuff cold.  What did take time was designing the warps, specifying the yarns, setts, etc. and preparing the notebooks.  The next weekend, having returned late Sunday night, I was in Winnipeg.  I had Monday and Tuesday to prepare (on Wednesdays I volunteer at a skilled nursing facility) and was off very, very early on Thursday morning, binders for the participants in tow.
I got home from there last Monday afternoon and did laundry and prepared for a program for the Mary M. Atwater Weavers Guild of Utah on Thursday night.

I love Albuquerque and have always felt at home there.  In fact, I spent the summers of 1964 and 1965 living there, enjoying the New Mexican food (different from Tex-Mex), the landscape and the cultures there.  I always thought I would live in New Mexico although that hasn't happened.

I had never done more than drive through Winnipeg (and that at night) before this trip.  My hostess there drove me to and from the workshop site through different parts of the city showing me that I missed a lot all that time ago.  I liked New Mexico because of the combination of three cultures:  Native Americans. Mexican and Gringo and thought the combination made the state very rich.  Well!  In Winnipeg there is a two week long festival that celebrates the different people who have settled there.  There are 45 different pavilions (half the first week and the other half the second) each featuring one culture of those that make up the city:  food, crafts, folk dancing, the works!  I think that is pretty wonderful.  I loved the folks I met there, too!

Since I have been home again I have been gathering leaves dropped by the huge, 153 year old cottonwood in my front garden.  I have cleared the front lawn twice and completely filled the 80 gallon yard waste bin with chopped leaves.  I could barely move it to the curb today in anticipation of Monday morning's pick up.  Not all the leaves have fallen but we have had snow for two days now with more to come tomorrow so I can't deal with leaves at the moment.  (I'm not sorry.)

Then tonight:  A Utah Symphony concert and what a doozy!  Our wonderful conductor, Thierry Fischer, programmed Stravinsky (The Fairy's Kiss), Ravel's Pavane for a dead princess (which I adore), La Valse (ditto),  Saint Saens' Piano Concerto Number 2 (yes!) and finally Ravel's Bolero.  From the audience reaction I must be the only person in the valley who is not crazy about Bolero.  I thought that if anyone could help me like it, it would be Fischer and he did a fine job.  I hadn't noticed before how Moorish the melody is and focused on that and on the various soloists from the orchestra, but I find it very repetitive and hearing it for hours for a year in my dorm at college didn't endear it to me.  In spite of that, I was a splendid concert.  Four out of five, isnt' bad, after all.

I am presenting a three day workshop locally next weekend for which I must prepare next.  I teach a lot of topics and this one is different from the last two so I won't be in a rut.  I am grateful for the work coming my way and am inclined to think based on my own experience, that the economy is improving.  I am very glad.

Now I have a question to pose to you, Gentle Reader.  I have been approached by Interweave Press about making a video that would fill two DVDs.  What is the topic you ask?  That is up to me, apparently, and I am handing the question off to you:  if you could see a video I made what topic(s) would you most like to see?

I hope next time to have some photos.  Outside it is night but very white, so there isn't a lot to show right now, which is just as well.  

I am home, except for next weekend, for a while now and hope to be more regular in my posts here.  Thanks for looking in!